


The Sons of Arthur Morgan

by Laclavande



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: probably fudging canon to make this work but idc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 02:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16715124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laclavande/pseuds/Laclavande
Summary: Lenny is more than a friend to Arthur, he treats him like a son. It takes him a little while to figure out why that is.





	The Sons of Arthur Morgan

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my obsession with dad!Arthur and [lennysummers’ post on Tumblr](https://lennysummers.tumblr.com/post/180397541464/arthur-wouldve-been-17-when-lenny-was-born-iirc)

Lenny was to Arthur what he himself was to Hosea. Arthur knew that. He realised it early on. He was always checking on the boy, encouraging him, standing up for him when the others were getting testy. He even gave him (bad) advice about Jenny because he asked. Out of everyone else, Lenny asked Arthur for advice.

 

Lenny had been with them for a month when Arthur gave him some candy he’d been saving.  
            “Why’re you giving it to me?” He asked.  
“Just wanted you to have it,” Arthur told him, shrugging his shoulders like it was no big deal.  
He cared about that kid, he really did. He didn’t _worry_ about him per se, he knew Lenny could hold his own, but when he wasn’t around, he always wondered if he was doing ok.

 

“How old are you, kid?” Arthur asked him the day they met.  
            “Eighteen,” was his reply.  
Eighteen years ago Isaac was born. It didn’t hit Arthur then. The information stayed within him. The connection wouldn’t be made until a year later.

 

Arthur wanted Lenny to be his protégé of sorts. He wanted to teach him things. He was excited for him to surpass him. After all, Lenny was a young man who would only get stronger, while Arthur was in his thirties, which in his mind was the edge of decline.

 

It was only after Lenny died that Arthur realised that he was even more than that. More than a reflection of himself as a young man. More than a friend and brother in arms.

 

_Lenny was the same age as Isaac if he had lived._

 

That thought came to him when he was tucked away between some crates on the deck of an ill-fated boat on an ill-fated journey. Dutch was next to him, plotting as usual. Looking forward, not back. But Arthur couldn’t shake that last image of Lenny. Shot dead so unceremoniously. Like Sean. Like so many others he had known in his lifetime, but the indignity of it this time really troubled him. He wished he could have at least comforted him in his final moments, say goodbye, but there was no chance of that.

 

_He didn’t get to say goodbye to Isaac either._

 

He mourned that loss every day. It had hardened him, made him grow up. If that was what his son’s death had done to him, what would Lenny’s?


End file.
